Fullmetal Supernatural
by SilverLilac07
Summary: Two brothers follow their father's footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth. They have gone to heaven and hell for each other and will do it all over again. Cause that's what family does and family don't end with blood.
1. 01x01 - Pilot (Prologue)

**Fullmetal Supernatural**

* * *

><p><strong>01x01 - Pilot<strong>

(Lawrence, Kansas 22 years Ago) "Come on, let's say goodnight to your brother." Trisha says, as she switches on the lights in the nursery. She is holding her almost four year old son, Edward in her arms but quickly puts him down on the floor. Edward runs over to the crib at the end of the room.

"Goodnight Alphonse." He softly says as he leans over the fence of the crib to kiss his baby brother's forehead.

"Goodnight love" Trisha gently strokes Al's tiny head and gently places a kiss on his forehead aswell.

"Hey Edward."

Trisha and Edward both look back to find a man with golden hair and eyes to match standing in the doorway.

"Daddy!" Edward gleefully runs to his father and jumps up into his arms

"Hey buddy. So, what do you think, you think Alfie's ready to toss around a foot ball yet." Van jests as he smiles at his son.

"No daddy." Edward chuckles.

"No."

"You got him?" Trisha asks as she gently touches her husbands shoulders.

"Yeah I got him." He quickly replies before Trisha exists the room.

Edward rests his head on his father's shoulders as Van gently rubs his hand up and down his back. He looks over to where Alphonse is lying sweetly in his crib. He look so calm and serene lying there all wrapped up in the small baby blue blanket. This was the good life, he thought as he smiled at his two sons.

" Sweet Dreams Alphonse." He whispers. He turns the lights to the nursery back off before leaving the room.

Everything seems to be as it should and everyone goes to bed thinking all is right with the world. However; the beautiful family moments didn't last long. Deep into the night things began to change. Time seemed to stop and lights flickered on and off.

Trisha was soundly asleep when the baby monitor next to her bed began to make strange noises. Trisha slowly opened her eyes as she heard the muffled cries of the baby. She sighed as she turned on the table light on her night stand.

"Van." She sighed, not wanting to get up from bed, she was hoping that he would take care of it, but when she turned around to the other side of the bed he wasn't there. Trisha groaned as she forced herself from the warmth and comforts of her bed. She slowly began to make her way over to Alphonse's nursery. She noticed that the crying had stopped and looked inside to see a dark silhouette of her husband leaning over his crib.

"Van, is he hungry." She asked. He turned his head slightly and hushed her softly.

"Okay." Trisha replied, thinking that he had taken care of whatever the problem was. She turned to go back to her bed for some much needed sleep when suddenly the light by the stairs began to flicker. confused, she headed over to the light. She tapped it a few times to see if it would stop. it did. Once again she turned to go back to sleep, but once again she was distracted. She stopped when she heard the noise of the television downstairs. Edward probably weaseled his way out of bed again, she thought as she defended the stairs. However; when she got to the bottom, what she saw was not her son, but her husband sleeping on the couch. For a second every part of her froze. If her husband was down here sleeping on the couch, then who was the man standing over Alphonse's crib. She quickly sprung into action as she flew up the stairs.

"Alfie!" She ran to the nursery and burst through the door.

"AAAHHHH!"

Van flung his eyes open in surprise as he heard the shriek of his wife.

"Trisha?!" He was off the couch in seconds flying up the stairs at lightning speed.

"Trisha?!" He ran through the hall and flung open the door to Al's nursery.

"Trisha?" However; there was no one in there except for Alphonse, who was still lying in his crib without a care in the world. Van looked around for a second then sighed with relief. He slowly made his way to Alphonse and slightly lowered the crib fence

"Hey Alfie." He smiled, happy that things were just fine.

"You okay?" He questioned, knowing perfectly well that a baby couldn't reply, he took the smile on his cute little face as a yes. It was then he noticed something had dripped onto his blanket. He went to touch it to see what it was. It almost looked like...Then another drop and a third fell onto his hand. Now a little frightened and confessed he turned his head to the ceiling for the source, and there she was. Trisha, pinned to the ceiling, blood dripping from the cut in her stomach. Van fell to the ground in fear.

"No, Trisha!" He screamed before she burst into flames. The fire spread through the entire room. No this can't be happening, this has to be a nightmare. Van thought as he was paralyzed with terror and dread. He finally snapped back to reality when he heard Alphonse cry. The fire was spreading quickly and he realized that if he didn't get both Alphonse and Edward out now they would all burn.

He scrambled off the ground and picked Alphonse from his crib. He ran out the door to get to Edward's room. However; Edward had heard the whole commotion and was now standing by the door trembling with fear.

"Daddy!" Edward cried. Van quickly handed Alphonse over to Edward.

"Take your brother outside as fast as you can! Don't look back!" Van ordered, as Edward took Alphonse in his arms.

"Now Ed, GO!"

Edward was terrified, but didn't stop to question his father. He took Alphonse and ran. Van turned back to the fire and went back in in a futile attempt to save his wife. Edward ran down the stairs and out the door onto the front lawn. He didn't know what was going on. Why was there a fire, and what caused it?

"It's okay Alfie." Edward said as he looked back up to the window that was now covered in radiant orange and yellow light. Not much time passed before his dad came running out the door. Van picked Edward up and ran. He only got to the street before the house exploded in flames.

The street was soon packed with police cars and a fire truck. Officials were talking on the street as firemen ran in and out of the house hosing it down with water.

Van sat and the front of his black Apalla holding Alphonse close to his heart while Edward sat next to his father, clinging on to his arm as if his life depended on it. Van watched the scene unfold in front of him, all the firemen hosing down his house, the police writing down reports, and even the near by neighbors watching from the sideline. A demon did this, van thought to himself. There was no other explanation. A demon came to his home and destroyed it, killing his beloved wife in the process. Van didn't care what it took. He was going to hunt down the son of a bitch and kill it the way it did Trisha.


	2. 01x01 - Pilot

**Fullmetal Supernatural**

**01x01 - Pilot**

"Alphonse!" A young woman, May, comes around the corner of the bedroom; she is wearing a sexy-nurse costume and adjusting her hat. A photo of Trisha and Van is sitting on the dresser on the dresser.

"Get a move on, would you?" She badgers. "We were supposed to be there like fifteen minutes ago." She puts in her last earing before walking off.

"Al, are you coming or What?" Alphonse pokes his head around the corner; He's wearing jeans and two shirts with a jeans jacket on top, not a costume.

"Do I have to?" he asks. Halloween had never been a very happy holiday for him and he had a hard time enjoying it.

"Yes! It'll be fun."May grins. Alphonse sighs and comes into the room.

"And where's your costume?" She asks. Alphonse laughs and ducks his head.

"You know how I feel about Halloween."

"Well after tonight," May starts as she takes his hand and smiles, "Maybe you'll change your mind."

* * *

><p>Alphonse and May are sitting at a black round table at a bar. The bar is decorated for Halloween, including a gargoyle with cobwebs and glowing jackolaterns, and everyone is in costume, except for Alphonse. May raises a glass as a young man in a ghoul costume, Luis, comes up to the table.<p>

"So here's to Alphonse, and his awesome LSAT victory." May starts as she raises a glass.

"All right, all right, it's not that big a deal." Al says, feeling a little embarrassed by the attention.

"Yeah, he acts all humble, but he scored a one seventy-four." May continues to praise him. Luis finishes his shot and slams it down.

"Is that good?" He asks.

"Scary good." May replies as she downs her shot as well. Luis looks over to Al.

"So there you go. You are a first-round draft pick. You can go to any law school you want!"

"Actually, I got an interview here. Monday. If it goes okay I think I got a shot at a full ride next year."

"Hey. It's gonna go great." May says reassuringly.

"It better." Al sighs

"How does it feel to be the golden boy of your family?" Luis asks.

"Ah, they don't know."

"Oh, no, I would be gloating! Why not?"

"Because we're not exactly the Bradys."

"And I'm not exactly the Huxtables. More shots?" Al and May speak in chorus.

"No. No." Luis goes up to the bar anyway, completely ignoring them. May rolls her eyes and chuckles before she turns back to Alphonse.

"No, seriously. I'm proud of you. And you're gonna knock 'em dead on Monday and you're gonna get that full ride. I know it." Alphonse smiles at his beautiful girlfriend.

"What would I do without you?"

"Crash and burn." May teases, she smiles and pulls Alphonse in for a kiss.

* * *

><p>Alphonse and May lie in bed, asleep back to back. A sound outside the room, like a window opening, wakes Al. He opens his eyes and looks around the bed to see that May is still fast asleep. He slowly gets out of bed and leaves the bedroom. looks around the apartment and notices a window is open. He hears footsteps and looks down the hall. A man walks past the strings of beads at the far end of the hallway, but it was too dark for him to make out who it was.<p>

Alphonse moves to another part of the apartment and waits. The man enters the room, and Alphonse immediately lunges forward and grabs the man at the shoulder. The man knocks his arm away and aims a strike at Al, who ducks. The man grabs Al's arm, swings him around, and shoves him back. Alphonse kicks and is blocked, then pushed back into another room. The man elbows Alphonse in the face; Alphonse kicks at his head. The man ducks and swings and Al blocks. The man knocks Alphonse down and pins him to the floor, one hand at Al's neck and the other holding Al's wrist.

"Whoa, easy, tiger." The man says.

"Edward?" Alphonse asks, out off breathe. Ed chuckles

"You scared the crap out of me!" Al exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Alphonse smirks before he grabs Ed's hand and yanks, slamming his heel into Ed's back and Ed to the floor.

"Or not." Ed replied. "Get off of me." Alphonse rolls to his feet and pulls his brother up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Al asks, dusting himself off.

"Well, I was looking for a beer." Edward puts his hands on Alphonse's shoulders, shakes once, and lets go.

"What are you doing here?" Alphonse asked again, clearly not in the mood for his brother's antics.

"Okay, all right. We gotta talk."

"Uh, the phone?"

"If I'd'a called, would you have picked up?" May turns the light on. She is wearing very short shorts and a cropped Smurfs shirt.

"Alphonse?" Ed and Al both turn their heads to face May.

"May. Hey. Ed, this is my girlfriend, May." Al introduces her. Edward looks at her appreciatively.

"Wait, your brother Ed?" May asks with a smile, and Al just nods. Edward grins at her and moves closer.

"Oh, I love the Smurfs. You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league."

"Just let me put something on." May said, feeling a little flushed. She turns to go, but Ed's voice stops her.

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously." Ed goes back over to Al without taking his eyes off May. Alphonse watches him, his expression stony.

"Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business, But, uh, nice meeting you."

"No." Al starts, he walks over to May and puts an arm around her.

"No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

"Okay." He turns to look at them both straight on. "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later." Edward ducks his head and looks back up.

"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." Al's expression doesn't change while he takes this in. May glances up at him.

"May, excuse us. We have to go outside."

* * *

><p>Ed and Al head downstairs. Alphonse has put on jeans and a hoodie.<p>

"I mean, come on. You can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you." Al starts, annoyed, again.

"You're not hearing me, Alphie. Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him."

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine." Edward stops and turns around. Alphonse stops too.

"Not for this long. Now are you gonna come with me or not?"

"I'm not."

"Why not?"

"I swore I was done hunting. For good."

"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Ed starts downstairs again. Al follows.

"Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45." Ed stops at the door to the outside.

"Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark."

Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there."

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her." Edward glances outside. "But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."

"We save a lot of people doing it, too." Ed says, getting a little defensive.

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Ed rolls his eyes and slams the door open. They climb the short flight of stairs from the door to the parking lot.

"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Ed, we were raised like warriors." They cross the parking lot to the Impala. After Edward was old enough, their dad had given it to him.

"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?"

"No. Not normal. Safe."

"And that's why you ran away." Ed looks away.

"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." Alphonse is silent.

"I can't do this alone." Ed continues.

"Yes you can."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to." Alphonse sighs and looks down, thinking, then looks up.

"What was he hunting?" He finally asks. Edward opens the trunk of the Impala, then the spare-tire compartment. It's an arsenal. He props the compartment open with a shotgun and digs through the clutter.

"All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?"

"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Alphonse asked.

"I was working my own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans.

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Ed looks over at Al.

"I'm twenty-six, dude." Ed pulls some papers out of a folder.

"All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy." Ed hands one of the papers to Al. "They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA." The paper is a printout of an article from the Jericho Herald, headlined "Centennial Highway Disappearance" and dated Sept. 19th 2005; it has a man's picture, captioned "Andrew Carey MISSING". Alphonse reads it and glances up.

"So maybe he was kidnapped." He states.

"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April." Edward tosses down another Jericho Herald article for each date he mentions. "Another one in December 'oh-four, 'oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two, ten of them over the past twenty years." He takes the article back from Alphonse and picks up the rest of the stack, putting them back in the folder.

"All men, all the same five-mile stretch of road." Ed pulls a bag out of another part of the arsenal.

"It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Ed grabs a handheld tape recorder. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday." He presses play. The recording is staticky and the signal was clearly breaking up.

"Edward...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Ed. We're all in danger."

"You know there's EVP on that?" Al says.

"Not bad, Alphie. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" Al shakes his head.

"All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." He presses play again, but this time it's a woman's voice.

"I can never go home..."

"Never go home?" Al questions. Ed drops the recorder, puts down the shotgun, stands straight, and shuts the trunk, then leans on it.

"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." Alphonse looks away and sighs, then looks back.

"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him." Ed smiles, "But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." Alphonse turns to go back to the apartment. He turns back when Ed speaks.

"What's first thing Monday?"

"I have this...I have an interview."

"What, a job interview? Skip it."

"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate."

"Law school?"

"So we got a deal or not?"

* * *

><p>Alphonse is packing a duffel bag. He pulls out a large hook-shaped knife and slides it inside. May comes into the room.<p>

"Wait, you're taking off?" Al looks up.

"Is this about your dad? Is he all right?"

"Yeah. You know, just a little family drama." Al goes over to the dresser and turns on the lamp atop it.

"Your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip." May sits on the bed. Alphonse rummages in one of the drawers and comes out with a couple shirts, which go in the duffel.

"Oh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin, he's probably got Jim, Jack, and José along with him. I'm just going to go bring him back."

"What about the interview?"

"I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days." Al goes around the bed. May gets up and follows.

"Alphonse, I mean, please." Al stops and turns.

"Just stop for a second. You sure you're okay?" Alphonse laughs a little.

"I'm fine."

"It's just...you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal.

"Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I will be back in time, I promise." He smiles and kisses her on the cheek before leaving.

"At least tell me where you're going!" May calls out, then rolls her eyes when no reply comes.

* * *

><p>(CENTENNIAL HIGHWAY - Jericho, California)<p>

A young man is driving down the highway, talking on his cell phone.

"Amy, I can't come over tonight. Because I've got work in the morning, that's why. ...Yeah, okay, I miss it and my dad's gonna have my ass." A high-pitched whine sounds, and the young man looks over and sees a woman in a white dress on the side of the road. She's moving as though dancing; she flickers, and for a moment she's gone.

"Hey, ah, Amy, let me call you back?" He hangs up the phone and tries several times to turn off the radio, which is flickering. Nothing happens. He pulls up next to the woman, whose dress is torn in several places, and stops, leaning across the shotgun seat.

"Car trouble or something?" There is a long pause.

"Take me home?" The woman simply says. The voice is calm and deep. The young man opens the passenger door.

"Sure, get in." The woman, who is barefoot, climbs in and closes the door.

"So, where do you live?"

"At the end of Breckenridge Road." The young man nods.

"You coming from a Halloween party or something?" The woman's dress is very low-cut. He notices, stares, and looks away, laughing nervously.

"You know, a girl like you really shouldn't be alone out here." She looks at him mournfully, seductively, and pulls her skirt up over her thigh.

"I'm with you." The young man looks away. The woman takes his chin and turns his face towards her.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" He nods, eyes stuck on her cleavage.

"Uh...huh."

"Will you come home with me?"

"Uh. Hell yeah." He drives off down the road. They pull up to an old abandoned house at the end of a road. The woman stares at it sadly.

"Come on. You don't live here."

"I can never go home."

"What are you talking about? Nobody even lives here. Where do you live?" He turns, and she's gone. He checks the back seat, also empty, and gets out of the car, nervous.

"That's good. Joke's over, okay? You want me to leave?" He looks around: no signs of life except crickets. He walks towards the house.

"Hello? Hello?" There's a picture of the woman and two children inside the house; the picture is covered in dust. The young man peers through the hole in the screen door. A bird flies at his face, scaring him into falling over. He yells, leaps to his feet, and runs back to the car. He gets in and drives off.

The young man looks behind him—no one's there—then in the rear view mirror. The woman is in the back seat. He yells again and drives straight through a "Bridge Closed" sign, stopping about halfway across the bridge. He screams as blood spatters the windows.

* * *

><p>(GAS STATION - 1st Nov 2005)<p>

The Impala is parked in front of a pump. "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers plays on the stereo. Edward comes out of the convenience mart carrying junk food. Alphonse is sitting in the shotgun seat with the door open, rifling through a box of tapes.

"Hey!" Ed calls out. Al leans out and looks at him. "You want breakfast?"

"No, thanks. So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?"

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career." Edward puts the nozzle back on the pump. "Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards."

"Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" Alphonse swings his legs back inside the car and closes the door.

"Uh, Burt Aframian." Ed gets into the driver seat and puts his soda and chips down. "And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal." Ed closes the door.

"That sounds about right. I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection." There are at least a dozen cassettes in the box on Al's lap; some have album art, others are hand-labeled.

"Why?"

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two." Alphonse holds up a tape for every band he names.

"Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica?" Ed takes the box labeled Metallica from Al. "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"Well, house rules, Alphie." Ed pops the tape in the player. "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." Ed drops the Metallica box back in the box of tapes and starts the engine.

"You know, Alphie is a chubby twelve-year-old." AC/DC's "Back in Black" begins to play. "It's Alphonse, okay?"

"Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." Ed then drives out of the gas station and onto the road.

* * *

><p>(CENTENNIAL HIGHWAY)<p>

"They drive past a sign that says "JERICHO 7". Alphonse is talking on his cell phone.

"Thank you." Al closes his phone. "All right. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue. So that's something, I guess." Ed glances over at Al, then back at the road. At a bridge ahead of them, there are two police cars and several officers.

"Check it out." He says. Al leans forward for a closer look. Ed pulls over. They take a long look before Ed turns off the engine. Ed opens the glove compartment and pulls out a box full of ID cards with his and Van's faces: visible ones include FBI and DEA. He picks one out and grins at Al, who stares.

"Let's go." Ed and Al get out of the car. On the bridge, the lead Deputy, Deputy Jaffe, leans over the railing to yell down to two men in wet suits who were poking around the river.

"You guys find anything?"

"No! Nothing!" Jaffe turns back to the car in the middle of the bridge. It was the same car the young man had been driving, however the blood was gone and the young man was as well missing. Another Deputy, Deputy Hein, is at the driver's side looking around inside the car.

"No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints. Spotless. It's almost too clean." He says. Ed and Al walk into the crime scene like they belong there.

"So, this kid Troy. He's dating your daughter, isn't he?" Jaffe asks, Hein.

"Yeah."

"How's Amy doing?"

"She's putting up missing posters downtown."

"You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Jaffe looks up when Edward starts talking and straightens up to talk to him.

"And who are you?" Edward flashes his badge.

"Federal marshals." He says.

"You two are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" Jaffe begins, eyeing them suspiciously. Ed laughs

"Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." Ed goes over to the car. "You did have another one just like this, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that."

"So, this victim, you knew him?" Alphonse asked. Jaffe nods.

"Town like this, everybody knows everybody." Edward circles the car, looking around.

"Any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?"

"No. Not so far as we can tell." Alphonse turns to Jaffe.

"So what's the theory?" Al then goes over to Ed.

"Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?"

"Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys." Ed starts. Al stomps on Ed's foot, and he cringes. Alphonse smiles at the Deputy.

"Thank you for your time, Gentlemen." Al starts to walk away, and Ed follows. Jaffe watches them go. Ed smacks Al on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Why'd you have to step on my foot?"

"Why do you have to talk to the police like that?" Ed looks at Al and moves in front of him, forcing Al to stop walking.

"Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." Alphonse clears his throat and looks over Ed's shoulder. Ed turns. It's Sheriff Pierce and two FBI Agents.

"Can I help you boys?" The Sheriff Asks sternly.

"No, sir, we were just leaving." Ed says. As the FBI Agents walk past Edward, he nods at each of them.

"Agent Mulder. Agent Scully." He comments. Ed and Al head past the Sheriff, who turns to watch them go.

* * *

><p>(JERICHO STREET)<p>

The marquee on the Highland Movie Theater reads: EMERGENCY TOWN HALL MEETING

SUNDAY 8 PM. BE SAFE OUT THERE. A young woman is tacking up posters with Troy's face and the caption "MISSING TROY SQUIRE". Ed and Al begin to approach her.

"I'll bet you that's her." Ed whispers.

"Yeah." They walk up to her.

"You must be Amy." Ed begins.

"Yeah." She answers, still putting her posters up.

"Yeah, Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Edward, this is Alphie.

"He never mentioned you to me." Amy walks away. Ed and Al walk with her.

"Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto." Ed explained.

"So, we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around." Al interrupts. Another young woman, Rachel, comes up to Amy and puts a hand on her arm.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"You mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Alphonse asked. Another poster that says MISSING TROY SQUIRE flaps in the breeze.

* * *

><p>"The four of them are sitting in a booth, Ed and Al opposite of Amy and Rachel.<p>

"I was on the phone with Troy." Amy began, "He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and...he never did."

"He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?" Al asks. Amy shakes her head. shakes her head.

"No. Nothing I can remember." Alphonse then noticed the necklace she was wearing.

"I like your necklace." Amy holds the pendant she's wearing, a pentagram in a circle, and looks down at it.

"Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents—" Amy laughs. "—with all that devil stuff." Alphonse laughs a little and looks down, then up again.

"Actually, it means just the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing."

"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries." Edward says. He takes his arm off the back of Al's seat and leans forward.

"Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..." Amy and Rachel look at each other.

"What is it?" Ed asks.

"Well," Rachel starts, "it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk.

"What do they talk about?" Ed and Al asks at the same time.

"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." Edward looks at Alphonse, who watches Rachel attentively, nodding.

"Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."

* * *

><p>(LIBRARY)<p>

A web browser is open to the archive search page for the Jericho Herald. The words "Female Murder Hitchhiking" are typed into the search box. Edward clicks GO; the screen tells him there are "(0) Result". Ed replaces "Hitchhiking" with "Centennial Highway" with the same response. Alphonse is sitting next to him, watching.

"Let me try." He says. Ed smacks Al's hand.

"I got it." Alphonse shoves Edward's chair out of the way and takes over.

"Dude!" Ed hits Al in the shoulder.

"You're such a control freak." He mumbles

"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Al asks, completely ignoring his brother's attitude.

"Yeah."

"Well, maybe it's not murder." Alphonse replaces "Murder" with "Suicide" and finds an article entitled "Suicide on Centennial". Ed glances at Al. Al opens the article, dated April 25, 1981.

"This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river." Alphonse states. There's a picture of Constance; it's the same woman who killed TROY.

"Does it say why she did it?" Ed asks.

"Yeah."

"What?"

"An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." Ed raises his eyebrows. The article has a picture of Joseph next to a picture of Sylvania Bridge; it's the place Troy died.

"Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch." Alphonse says, qouting the article.

"The bridge look familiar to you?" Ed asks.

* * *

><p>(SYLVANIA BRIDGE - NIGHT TIME)<p>

Ed and Al walk along the bridge, then stop to lean on the railing and look down at the river.

"So this is where Constance took the swan dive." Ed says.

"So you think Dad would have been here?" Alphonse looks over at Edward.

"Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Ed continues walking. Al follows.

"Okay, so now what?" Al asks.

"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." Alphonse stops.

"Ed, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—" Ed turns around to face his brother.

"Monday. Right. The interview."

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?"

"Maybe. Why not?"

"Does May know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?" Alphonse steps closer.

"No, and she's not ever going to know."

"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Alphie. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." Edward turns around and keeps walking. Alphonse follows.

"And who's that?"

"You're one of us." Alphonse hurries to get in front of Edward.

"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." Ed scowls

"You have a responsibility to—"

"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." Ed grabs Al by the collar and shoves him up against the railing of the bridge. They stand there for a minute not saying a word before Ed breaks the silence.

"Don't talk about her like that." Ed releases Al and walks away. He stops when he sees Constance standing at the edge of the bridge.

"Al." Alphonse slowly comes to stand next to Ed. Constance looks over at them, then steps forward off the edge. Ed and Al run to the railing and look over.

"Where'd she go?" Ed asks.

"I don't know." Behind them, the Impala's engine starts and its headlights come on. The boys turn to look.

"What the—" Ed starts.

"Who's driving your car?" Edward pulls the keys out of his pocket and jingles them. Al glances at them. The car jerks into motion, heading straight for them. They turn and run.

"Ed? Go! Go!" The car is moving faster than they are; when it gets too close, The two dive over the railing. The car comes to a halt. Alphonse has caught himself on the edge of the bridge and is hanging on. He pulls himself up onto the bridge and looks around.

"Ed? Edward!" Below, a filthy and annoyed Ed crawls out of the water and onto the mud, panting.

"What?" He calls out.

"Hey! Are you all right?" Ed holds up one hand in an A-OK sign.

"I'm super." Alphonse laughs, relieved, and scoots away from the edge.

Ed shuts the hood of his car and leans on it.

"Your car all right?" Al asks.

"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!"

"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure. So where's the job go from here, genius?" Alphonse settles on the hood next to Edward. Ed throws up his arms in frustration, then flicks mud off his hands. Alphonse looks at his brother.

"You smell like a toilet."

* * *

><p>(MOTEL - 2nd Nov 2005)<p>

A VersaBank MasterCard in the name of Hector Aframian lands on a handwritten guest ledger.

"One room, please." Edward is standing at the motel check-in desk, still filthy, with Alphonse right behind him. The Clerk picks up the card and looks at it.

"You guys having a reunion or something?"

"What do you mean?" Al asks.

"I had another guy, Burt Aframian. He came and bought out a room for the whole month." Ed looks back at Al

* * *

><p>(VAN'S ROOM)<p>

The motel door swings open. Alphonse is on the other side, having just picked the lock. he hides the picks and stands up. Ed is just outside, playing lookout, until Al reaches out of the room to grab his shoulder and yank him inside. Alphonse closes the door behind them. They look around—every vertical surface has papers pinned to it: maps, newspaper clippings, pictures, notes. There are books on the desk and assorted junk on the floor and bed, including something with a hazardous-materials symbol.

"Whoa." Al says. Edward turns on a light by the bed and picks up a half-eaten hamburger sitting there. Alphonse steps over a line of salt on the floor. Ed sniffs the burger and recoils.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least." Al's fingers the salt on the floor and looks up.

"Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in." Ed looks at the papers covering one wall.

"What have you got here?" Al asks.

"Centennial Highway victims." Al nods. The victims seen on the wall include Mark somebody, William Durrell, Scott Nifong who disappeared in 1987 at age 25, and somebody Parks. Mark, Durrell, and Nifong are all white males, judging by the photos.

"I don't get it." Ed starts, "I mean, different men, different jobs—" Alphonse crosses the room. "—ages, ethnicity. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?" While Ed talks, Al looks at the papers taped to the other walls. There's something about the Bell Witch, two people being burned alive, a skeletal person blowing a horn at several scared people with the note "MORTIS DANSE", a column about "Devils + Demons", another about "Sirens, Witches, the possessed", a wooden pentacle, and a note that says "Woman in White" above a printout of the Jericho Herald article on Constance's suicide. Alphonse turns on another lamp.

"Dad figured it out." He says. Ed turns to look.

"What do you mean?"

"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white." Edward looks at the photos of Constance's victims.

"You sly dogs." Ed smirks. He turns back to Al.

"All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it.

"She might have another weakness."

"Well, Dad would want to make sure." Edward crosses to Alphonse.

"He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?" He asks.

"No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband." Alphonse taps the picture of Joseph Welch. The caption says he's thirty; the article dates to 1981, so he must be sixty-four. "If he's still alive." Alphonse goes to look at something else. Edward looks at the picture below the Herald article, of a woman in a white dress.

"All right. Why don't you, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up." Ed starts to walk away. Alphonse turns.

"Hey, Ed?" Ed stops and turns back.

"What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." Edward holds up a hand.

"No chick-flick moments." He states. Alphonse laughs and nods.

"All right. Jerk."

"Bitch." Ed retorts. Al laughs again. Ed disappears, presumably into the bathroom. Al notices something, his smile disappearing, and crosses over for a closer look. A rosary hangs in front of a large mirror, and stuck into the mirror frame is a photo of Van sitting on the hood of the Impala, next to a BOY in a baseball cap who is presumably Edward and with a younger boy, presumably Alphonse, on Van's lap. Al takes the photo off the mirror and holds it, smiling sadly.

* * *

><p>Alphonse paces, holding his phone, and sits down on the bed. A voicemail message from May is playing.<p>

"Hey, it's me, it's about ten-twenty Saturday night—" Edward, clean again, comes out of the bathroom and grabs his jacket. He shrugs it on one shoulder as he crosses the room.

"Hey, man. I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?"

"No."

"Aframian's buying." Alphonse shakes his head.

"Mm-mm." Ed leaves the motel room. He gets the jacket the rest of the way on as he crosses the lot. He looks over and sees a police car, where the Motel Clerk is talking to Deputy Jaffe and Deputy Hein. The Clerk points at Edward, who turns away and pulls out his cell phone.

"Alphonse is sitting on the bed, still listening to the message.

"So come home soon, okay? I love you." The phone beeps. Al looks at it and presses a button, then puts it back to his ear.

"What?"

Outside, the Deputies are approaching Ed.

"Dude, five-oh, take off."

Alphonse stands up stands up.

"What about you?"

"Uh, they kinda spotted me. Go find Dad." Edward hangs up the phone as the Deputies approach. He turns and grins at them.

"Problem, officers?"

"Where's your partner?" Jaffe asks.

"Partner? What, what partner?" Jaffe glances over his shoulder and jerks his thumb towards the motel room. Hein heads over there, and Ed begins to fidgets. Alphonse sees Hein approaching and darts away from the window.

"So. Fake US Marshal. Fake credit cards. You got anything that's real?" Jaffe asks.

"My boobs." Ed grins. Hein slams Ed over the hood of the cop car.

"You have the right to remain silent—" Jaffe starts.

* * *

><p>(SHERIFF'S OFFICE)<p>

Sheriff Pierce enters the room, carrying a box. He sets the box on the table at which Edward sits and goes around the table to face Ed across it.

"So you want to give us your real name?"

"I told you, it's Nugent. Ted Nugent."

"I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."

"We talkin', like, misdemeanor kind of trouble or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?"

"You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall." Ed looks away. "Along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect."

"That makes sense. Because when the first one went missing in '82 I was three."

"I know you've got partners. One of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So tell me. Edward." The sheriff tosses a brown leather-covered journal on the table.

"This his?" Edward stares at it. The Sheriff sits on the edge of the table. He flips through the journal: it's filled with newspaper clippings, notes, and pictures, just like what's on the walls of Van's motel room.

"I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out—I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy." Ed leans forward for a closer look. "But I found this, too." He opens the journal to a page that reads "EDWARD 35-111", circled, with nothing else on that page.

"Now. You're stayin' right here till you tell me exactly what the hell that means." Ed stares down at the page, then looks up.

* * *

><p>(WELCH HOUSE)<p>

Alphonse knocks on a door with a grimy glass window covering a chain-link. An old man opens it: it's recognizably Joseph Welch.

"Hi. Are you Joseph Welch?"

"Yeah."

Alphonse and Joseph are walking down the junk-filled driveway, Joseph holding the photo Alphonse found on Van's motel room mirror.

"Yeah, he was older, but that's him." Joseph hands the photo back to Al.

"He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter."

"That's right. We're working on a story together."

"Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?

"About your wife Constance?"

"He asked me where she was buried."

"And where is that again?"

"What, I gotta go through this twice?"

"It's fact-checking. If you don't mind."

"In a plot. Behind my old place over on Breckenridge."

"And why did you move?

"I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died." Alphonse stops walking. Joseph stops too.

"Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?"

"No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known."

"So you had a happy marriage?" Joseph hesitates before he answers.

"Definitely."

"Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time." Alphonse turns toward the Impala, and Joseph begins to walks away. Al waits a moment, then looks back up at Joseph.

"Mr. Welch, did you ever hear of a woman in white?" Joseph turns around.

"A what?"

"A woman in white. Or sometimes weeping woman?" Joseph just looks. "It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomenon, really." Al starts back toward Joseph. "Um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women." Alphonse stops in front of Joseph. "You understand. But all share the same story."

"Boy, I don't care much for nonsense." Joseph walks away, but Alphonse follows.

"See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them." Joseph stops. "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children." Joseph quickly turns around. "Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again."

"You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance? You smart ass!"

"You tell me." Alphonse said, remaining perfectly calm.

"I mean, maybe...maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!" Joseph's face shakes, whether from anger or grief it's impossible to tell. After a long moment, he turns away, and Alphonse sighs.

* * *

><p>(SHERIFF'S OFFICE - NIGHT TIME)<p>

"I don't know how many times I gotta tell you. It's my high school locker combo." Ed explained. Sheriff Pierce is still interrogating Ed over the "EDWARD 35-111" page.

"We gonna do this all night long?" A Deputy leans into the room.

"We just got a 911, shots fired over at Whiteford Road."

"You have to go to the bathroom?" The Sheriff asked Ed.

"No."

"Good." The Sheriff handcuffs Edward to the table and leaves. Ed sees a paper clip poking out of the journal, pulls it out, and looks at it with a grin. Moments later, as the Sheriff and Deputy are gearing up to leave, he is out of the cuffs. Ed watches through the window in the door, and ducks out of sight as the Deputy approaches the door, and waits. Edward climbs down the fire escape, carrying his dad's journal.

* * *

><p>(HIGHWAY)<p>

Alphonse is driving the Impala when his phone rings. He pulls it out and answers it. Edward is in a phone booth; apparently his phone was confiscated and he didn't take the time to steal it back.

"Fake 911 phone call? Alphie, I don't know, that's pretty illegal.

"You're welcome." Al grins.

"Listen, we gotta talk." Ed starts.

"Tell me about it. So the husband was unfaithful. We are dealing with a woman in white. And she's buried behind her old house, so that should have been Dad's next stop.

"Alphie, would you shut up for a second?"

"I just can't figure out why Dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."

"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho."

"What? How do you know?"

"I've got his journal."

"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."

"Yeah, well, he did this time."

"What's it say?"

"Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going."

"Coordinates. Where to?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"I don't understand. I mean, what could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Ed, what the hell is going on?" Alphonse looks up and slams the brake, dropping the phone: Constance appeared on the road in front of him. The car goes right through her as Alphonse brings it to a halt.

"Al? Al!" Inside the car, Alphonse breathes hard. Constance is now sitting in the back seat.

"Take me home." Alphonse sits still for a second, not saying a word.

"Take me home!" Constance said again.

"No." Al replied, trying to stay as calm as possible. Constance glares at him and the doors lock themselves. Alphonse struggles to reopen them. The gas pedal presses down and the car begins to drive itself. Alphonse tries to steer, but Constance is doing that too. Alphonse continues to try to get the door open. In the back seat, Constance begins to flickers. The car pulls up in front of Constance's house and stops. The engine shuts off and so do the lights.

"Don't do this." Al begins. Constance flickers. Her voice is sad.

"I can never go home."

"You're scared to go home." He says in realization. Alphonse looks back and Constance isn't there anymore. He glances around and back and sees her in the shotgun seat. She climbs into his lap, shoving him back against the seat hard enough to recline the seat. Alphonse begins to struggle.

"Hold me. I'm so cold."

"You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been!" Al starts, trying to worm his way free.

"You will be. Just hold me." Constance kisses Alphonse as he continues to struggle, reaching for the keys. She pulls back and disappears, a flash of something horrible behind her face as she vanishes. Alphonse looks around for a moment, then yells in pain and yanks his hoodie open. There are five new holes burned through the fabric, matching to Constance's fingers: she flickers in front of him, her hand reaching into his chest. Then suddenly a gunshot goes off, shattering the window and startling Constance. Edward approaches, still firing at her. She glares at him and vanishes, then reappears, and Edward keeps firing until she disappears again. Alphonse manages to sit up and start the car.

"I'm taking you home." He says. Alphonse then slams on the gas and drives forward. Edward just stares after the car. Alphonse smashes through the side of the house. Edward hurries through the wreckage to the passenger side of the car.

"Al! Al! You okay?"

"I think..."

"Can you move?"

"Yeah. Help me?" Ed leans through the window to give Alphonse a hand. Constance picks up a large framed photograph seen when she brought Troy there: the Woman is Constance and the children are presumably hers. Edward helps Alphonse out of the car.

"There you go." He says. Edward closes the car door. They look around and see Constance; she looks up. She glares at them and throws the picture down. A bureau scoots towards Ed and Al, pinning them against the car. The lights flicker; Constance looks around, scared. Water begins to pour down the staircase. She goes over. At the top are the boy and girl from the photograph. They hold hands and speak in chorus.

"You've come home to us, Mommy." Constance looks at them, distraught. Suddenly they appear behind her; they embrace her tightly and she screams, her image flickering. In a surge of energy, still screaming, Constance and the two children melt into a puddle in the floor. Ed and Al shove the bureau over and go look at the spot where Constance and her children vanished.

"So this is where she drowned her kids." Ed says. Alphonse nods.

"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them."

"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Alphie." He slaps Al on the chest where he's been injured and walks away. Al laughs through the pain.

"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"

"Hey, I saved your ass." Edward leans over to look at the car. "I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car?" Edward twists around to look at Al. "I'll kill you." Al just rolls his eyes and laughs.

* * *

><p>(HIGHWAY)<p>

The Impala tears down the road; the right headlight is out. Alphonse has the journal open to "EDWARD 35-111" and a map open on his lap and is finding coordinates with a ruler, a flashlight tucked between chin and shoulder.

"Okay, here's where Dad went. It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado." Alphonse says.

"Sounds charming. How far?"

"About six hundred miles."

"Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning." Alphonse looks at him, hesitantly.

"Ed, I, um..." Ed glances at the road and back.

"You're not going." Ed states.

"The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there." Ed nods, disappointed, and returns his attention to the road.

"Yeah. Yeah, whatever." Ed glances at Al. "I'll take you home." Alphonse turns the flashlight off, and they drive on.

* * *

><p>They pull up in front of the apartment, Edward still frowning. Alphonse gets out and leans over to look through the window.<p>

"Call me if you find him? And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"

"Yeah, all right." Alphonse pats the car door twice and turns away. Edward leans toward the passenger door, one arm going over the back of the seat.

"Al?" Alphonse turns back.

"You know, we made a hell of a team back there."

"Yeah." Edward then drives off, as Alphonse watches him go and sighs.

Alphonse lets himself in. Everything is dark and quiet.

"May?" Alphonse closes the door. "You home?" Alphonse notices a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table, with a note that reads "Missed you! Love you!", next to a National Geographic. Alphonse picks one up and eats it as he sneaks into the bedroom, smiling. The shower is audibly running. Alphonse sits on the bed, shuts his eyes, and flops onto his back.

Alphonse twitches as he feels something drip on his forehead. One drop, then another; he flinches and opens his eyes. He gasps in horror: May is pinned to the ceiling, staring down at him and bleeding from the stomach.

"No!" Alphonse screams. May bursts into flame; the fire spreads across the ceiling. Edward kicks the front door open.

"Al!" Alphonse raises one arm to shield his face.

"May!" he continues to scream. Edward comes running into the bedroom.

"Al! Al!" Edward looks up and sees May. Edward reacts quickly, grabs Alphonse off the bed and bodily shoves him out the door, Alphonse struggling all the way.

"May! May, no!" Flames engulf the apartment.

* * *

><p>In a scene much like the one 22 years ago, a fire truck is parked outside the building, firemen and police keeping back gawkers. Edward looks on, then turns and walks back to his car. Alphonse is standing behind the open trunk, loading a shotgun. Edward looks at the trunk, then at Alphonse, whose face is set in a mask of desperate anger. Alphonse looks up, then sighs, nods, and tosses the shotgun into the trunk.<p>

"We got work to do." Alphonse says as he shuts the trunk.


End file.
